The AOTA/AOTF Leadership Mentoring Program, 2007-2010, addressed the critical need to systematically enhance the emergence of new leaders within the academic community. Participation was open to occupational therapy program directors at both the OT and OTA levels.

The program was based upon Mentoring Circles®, an innovative group-mentoring method developed by the Mentoring Company. This process introduced participants to contemporary leadership theory and practice, and engages them in a standardized leadership assessment process. Participants used The Leadership Practice Inventory (LPI) as a reliable tool for identifying personal leadership practices from five general categories: Challenging the Process, Inspiring a Shared Vision, Enabling Others to Act, Modeling the Way, and Encouraging the Heart.

The AOTA/AOTF Leadership Mentoring Program offered individuals the opportunity to participate in a series of sixteen mentoring sessions led by a Catalyst Mentor. The group mentoring process is grounded in the needs of the participants who will identify the specific mentoring topics. The Catalyst mentor used real-time stories from her personal experience to efficiently transfer best practices that promote leadership. From time-to-time, Guest Mentors joined the mentoring circle to address specific topics identified by the group.

The Leadership Mentoring Program assisted OT programs in faculty development by helping faculty achieve their goals in moving out of entry-level to the post-baccalaureate degree as required by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE), the educational certifying body of the profession of occupational therapy.

AOTF's investment in the Leadership Mentoring Program built on its long history of faculty development. Previous projects include:

• Curriculum Mentoring Project- The first of these programs concluded at the end of 2002. This program, called the "Curriculum Mentor's Project," was designed as a year-long pilot study to determine what effect a mentor could have on the development of increased scholarship across faculty and student participants in a master's entry level program in occupational therapy. Five schools were selected from the applicant pool and worked with their mentors for a 12-month period.
• Regional Workshop Series - The second program, the "Regional Workshop Series on Curriculum Revision," ran from 2001-2003. In this program, designed collaboratively by AOTA, ACOTE, and AOTF, twenty-two schools grouped by geographic locales shared a series of three workshops, each school usually hosting one workshop. Both academic and fieldwork faculty join in the exploration of topics designed to move the program into the graduate education mode, to ensure that the concept of occupation is grounding the curriculum, and that new and innovative fieldwork methods and sites are represented in each program. 

July 11-14, 2004
The purpose of this project was to marshal the efforts of the international community of occupational therapists to enhance dissemination of research information for evidence-based practice and to identify and address gaps in research.

Twenty-six participants from thirteen countries convened with an agenda focused on the needs of the global occupational therapy community. Three major topics were addressed by task groups:

• critical review and synthesis of the literature, knowledge transfer, and practitioner education. Each group identified one or two priority goals, which included: securing international financial support for an existing evidence data-base currently supported in Australia;
• facilitating establishment of the World Federation of Occupational Therapy (WFOT) website as an entry point for materials related to evidence-based OT; establishing a web portal for dissemination of teaching materials for educational programs;
• creating a catalog system for evidence that is based in the ICF and occupation frameworks; and developing standard guidelines for critically-appraised papers and topics. 

Specific tasks were identified for each goal, as well as timelines for accomplishing the tasks and persons or groups who would assume responsibility for each task. Mechanisms for on-going electronic communication also were identified. 

Established in the spring of 2007 and active until 2012, the AOTA/AOTF Research Advisory Panel advised the AOTA and AOTF boards of directors in several matters, including the translation of research to education and practice, and the review of the research agenda of the profession and its alignment with national research priorities and emerging social and technology issues. The panel also fostered critical analyses of issues related to the delivery of services, evolution of theories, and the overall body of knowledge relevant to occupational therapy.

In October, 2009, the Boards of AOTF and AOTA approved the Research Advisory Panel's Report outlining a Research Agenda for the profession of occupational therapy. You can download the document at the bottom of this article.

As of 2015, the AOTF Scientific Advisory Council now has the advisory role to the AOTF.

Members of the Research Advisory Panel included the following individuals appointed by the AOTA and AOTF presidents for terms beginning in 2010: 

• Shelly J. Lane, PhD, OTR, FAOTA (chair)
• M. Carolyn Baum, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA
• Grace Baranek, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA
• Wendy Coster, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA
• Joyce Engel, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA
• Laura Gitlin, PhD
• Major Sarah B. Goldman, PhD, OTR/L, CHT
• Joy M. Hammel, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA
• Mary Law, PhD, OT(C)
• Mary C. Lawlor, ScD, OTR/L
• Trudy R. Mallinson, PhD, OTR/L, NZROT
• Kenneth J. Ottenbacher, PhD, OTR, FAOTA
• Mary Lynn Schneider, PhD, OTR 
• Linda Tickle-Degnen, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA
• Laura K. Vogtle, PhD, OTR/L, ATP

December 1–2, 2011 

This conference was designed to address the insufficient number of published clinical trials and outcomes research in occupational therapy and related discipline. It increased scientists’ understanding of the design and conduct of rigorous clinical trials and outcomes research and increased the research capacity in occupational therapy and related disciplines by providing them with tools and collaborative opportunities. Click here to view ACTOR conference videos. 

AOTF and AOTA hope to facilitate the creation of strong research networks and better understand the research assets we have in the profession.  An important step is to gather information regarding occupational therapy research and grants.  A couple of years ago, AOTA-AOTF launched a research database for this purpose.

AOTF worked with Indiana University in January 2016 to conduct asset mapping of the database around research priority areas to build our profession's research capacity and make it easier to connect people.